To Fear
by Cookie Master's Apprentice
Summary: Toothless seldom felt fear. Like the Vikings, dragons have stubborn problems. What he never knows is that one human hatchling you accidentally met in a forest can cause you to feel such fear when you can obviously cook him in one breath. Read and review!


The movie How to Train Your Dragon does not, in any way, belong to me. But we can all dream. **

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**To Fear**

Toothless seldom felt fear. Like the Vikings, dragons have stubborn problems.

He felt shocked when that ropes thingy slammed into him that night as he was destroying the human's dwellings. Toothless' race was made to not be seen in the night, but somebody had succeeded in shooting him. _How?_ The dragon had wondered as he fell from the sky, the ropes trapping his wings and rendering his flight useless.

Toothless had struggled with those ropes as he fell, had tried his hardest to get out of them and had roared in frustration when he knew they wouldn't come off, but not fear. Finally, exhausted with his efforts, he slumped down and passed out.

He hadn't felt fear either, when that hatchling with the brown hair showed up. He had been too tired to. When the hatchling (Toothless thought that the proper human word for him was "boy", for a young male), raised that sharp iron stick that can cut through things, Toothless closed his eyes. He had resigned himself for death. Such a pity. He was among the last of his kind.

But then he heard the ropes around him being cut loose. Toothless didn't turn his head, but he knew it was the young hatchling who was freeing him. But why? Why did he free an enemy?

Doesn't matter. He was going to be free again.

When the last rope fell off, Toothless reacted the way all dragon would with human: he roared and spun around to slam his foot at the hatchling, pushing him against a boulder and baring his teeth, growling angrily. But as minutes passed, the more he looked at the hatchling – by all means, his savior, and he doesn't know this, his attacker from the night before – he found that he couldn't bring himself to kill him. The frightened green eyes were too much of a reminder of his reflection as he saw how his parents were killed by the Queen. So he roared one last time and took flight, or tried to.

It was awhile later that Toothless finally realized his tail was damaged. Half of it was gone – his steer – no wonder he couldn't fly. And so, even more frustration was born when he realized that he was trapped. Days after days, he tried to get out of the stuck situation he'd so thoughtlessly gotten himself in.

And then that hatchling came again. Toothless wasn't quite sure how he felt when he saw his savior. Annoyance? Definitely. Wanting for him to go away? He wasn't so sure. What he did know was, beneath that annoyance was gratefulness that the hatchling had cared enough to come looking, either from curiosity or from concern for him.

But the hatchling brought a fish! His favorite fish, no less.

After that, it became a routine for them both. Most evenings, when the hatchling wasn't too sore from that dragon practice he always told Toothless about, he would come with some treats and stories to tell the imprisoned dragon, and Toothless, in turn, will sit near the entrance that was unfortunately too small for him to go through, waiting for his normal visitor.

Oh, and the name. Toothless. The Night Fury had no name before that, but he didn't know since when he'd come to accept that name the human hatchling had given him. He responded to it more often, and it was only a matter of time before he started feeling comfortable with it.

And then the cheeky hatchling decided to make that fake tail for him, and he was able to fly again, with his human's help, of course. It was then that Toothless started feeling more and more close to the hatchling. He had been taught that dragons and humans just don't click, but as he spent more and more time spending with this human hatchling, the more he realized how utterly wrong that teaching was. Hiccup (weird name, Toothless thought) was anything but dangerous, and as time came by, his mutual respect turned to friendship. It heightened with the flights they shared together.

Then one day, that girl showed up. What did Hiccup call her? Astrid? The Night Fury was awakened to the sound of his rider's frantic sentences and her cocky voices that Toothless had first loathed. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the blond female pushing Hiccup aside, her face every bit an angry and suspicious mask.

It was then that Toothless truly lived up to his name: Night Fury. Like a black panther driven by lava-hot rage, he threw himself at the human girl, but Hiccup had stood up and told him, "She is a friend." Then he fumbled to make some explanations to the girl, who looked scared out of her wits.

Toothless didn't trust her, but he trusted the hatchling's judgment, so he backed off and allowed himself to be contained, his rage still in the high notches. But then she started to run, and Hiccup had urged him to chase her down. _That_ was when things got fun.

And right the next day, that hatchling managed to plunge Toothless into something akin to panic as he heard Hiccup's scream all the way from that little lake they often stayed at. Eyes wide open, ears accessing the panic in that familiar voice that was often used to tell Toothless tales from the human dwellings, Toothless had, on instinct, prepared to take flight.

When he realized he couldn't because that blasted fake-steer couldn't be used without the hatchling whose life might be in jeopardy, Toothless decided to climb. He was shocked to see that he could climb the steep rocks that before he met Hiccup, no matter how hard he tried, he could never did, and now he covered it in less than thirty seconds. But he didn't notice then. He only knew that he had to get to Hiccup. Driven by worry and the screams that continued to come to his ears, the Night Fury was given a power boost he had never felt before.

Then that fear turned into fury as he neared the human dwellings and saw Hiccup under a Nightmare's claw. Blasting through the iron bars that made the arena's roof, he flew toward the nightmare in a black flurry and kicked and bit it until he got it off the hatchling. Then he pushed it back, far away from the vulnerable little one behind his back. His message was clear: _leave him or die._

After that was the whole fiasco with the big barbarian who the hatchling called "Dad" and then came one more of Toothless' panic attacks when the ship sank. He would be fine for awhile, he knew that, so he wasn't too worried about himself. But _no_, the hatchling had to dive into the water for him, too, and nearly drowned himself to death. The fear was only momentary, but it was there, as Toothless watched the air bubbles streamed out of Hiccup's mouth. It was a known fact that humans just aren't made for long sea-dives.

But then he was saved by his father, and the man freed Toothless. That his life was saved might not have given the dragon enough reason to forgive him of his imprisonment, but when twinned with saving Hiccup, it was more than enough.

Fifteen minutes later, the hatchling managed to drive Toothless into a new level of fear he'd never experienced before when he fell from his saddle and down to the storm of fire beneath. If that had been the case normally, it would not have been a problem, but Toothless' artificial tail was burned, and there was no way to reach Hiccup in time. The hatchling was unconscious and falling too fast.

Toothless himself would be safe, he knew, from both the fire and the fall, for dragon bones were sturdy and his hide was thick, but a human boy? Not so sure.

As they fell, the dragon suddenly remembered those days near the lake and flying around with the hatchling – the _human_ hatchling that he'd come to love. It was then that the Night Fury realized how much he cared. He was too important, too much of a friend, of a guidance, of a savior.

_I don't want you to die._

Toothless folded his wings and tail fin and dived.

He managed to get the boy, and he was relieved when he was finally able to wrap his legs and wings around the hatchling. Toothless tucked his head in and got ready for a shaky fall.

When he had handed the unconscious human hatchling over to his father, the dragon was then plunged into several days worrying as he watched over his rider, fearing that those green eyes won't open or to never hear that joking, gentle voice that had captivated his interest in the start again, but when Hiccup did, the dragon couldn't help but be a bit immature and started making a silly dance in his room.

It was clear that Hiccup hailed Toothless into misery quite a lot of times, but the love and the friendship that came with it tripled out the former.

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I like the friendship Toothless and Hiccup share, so I decided to honor it with a simple one-shot. Tell me what you think. Thank you for reading.

~the Apprentice


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